A Santa Clara County judge agrees that former Los Altos police chief Bob Lacey was “crude or inappropriate,” but dismissed a lawsuit filed against him by a police department employee who alleged she was the victim of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.

The lawsuit, filed in January 2008 by executive assistant Dawn Silva, contends she “put up with copious derogatory remarks aimed at her, sexual innuendo and other inappropriate behavior.”

Silva still works for the city and had sought $25,000 in damages, but “we wanted an apology more than anything else,” said her attorney, Robert Cummings. Lacey retired from the Los Altos Police Department in July 2008.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mary Jo Levinger issued a summary judgment May 7 to dismiss the suit without sending it to trial. Levinger wrote that Lacey’s alleged conduct “was not severe or sufficiently pervasive enough to create an abusive work environment.”

Some of Lacey’s alleged behavior is detailed in sometimes explicit court documents obtained by The Daily News.

In a March 1, 2006, incident Silva discovered pornography on a flash drive given to her by the former chief, according to the documents. Lacey had apparently handed Silva the flash drive and instructed her to e-mail an emergency preparedness presentation requested by a local weekly newspaper. When Silva inserted the flash drive into her computer and opened what she thought was the presentation, she found images of a woman masturbating. When confronted by Silva, the former chief reportedly said, “Oh my God. I don’t know how that got there.”

Lacey initially said another officer had used the flash drive last and may have been responsible for putting the photos on it. The next day Lacey called Silva at home and explained that his son had taken the flash drive and put the images on it, according to court documents. The son apparently wanted to show the images to a friend.

In her ruling Judge Levinger wrote, “the provision of the four photos that took less than 30 seconds to view did not constitute conduct directed” at Silva. According to court documents, Silva said she didn’t think Lacey had wanted her to see the images.

Silva also referred to several incidents in which the former police chief allegedly engaged in crude behavior, but she did not witness them.

According to court documents, Lacey made from five to 20 “fat jokes” about a pregnant city employee. Levinger wrote that the attorneys representing Los Altos demonstrated these comments were in fact statements of support, encouraging the worker’s viable pregnancy. The worker was a friend of Lacey and his wife, who both knew she previously had two miscarriages, according to court documents.

The court records also allege that Lacey made comments about the appearance of a male officer’s testicles after he had sex, made four or five comments about a co-worker’s overweight mother, and showed a photo of a transgender person with male genitalia to a male officer.

“All are the usage of crude or inappropriate language in front of employees,” Levinger wrote, but since Lacey didn’t direct sexual innuendos or gender-related language toward Silva they do not form the basis for a sexual harassment claim.

Cummings said his client is considering an appeal, but also wants to put the lawsuit behind her. The city is seeking to collect roughly $13,000 in fees it spent on depositions and filing fees, he added.

“His conduct was clearly unbecoming of a police officer, let alone a chief,” Cummings said in an interview last week.

Attorneys for the city did not return calls. Los Altos City Attorney Jolie Houston and Assistant City Managers J. Logan and James Walgren declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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